L015 
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explorers 



By CHARLES HALLOCK, M, G. S. 



DEDICATED TO THE NATION AX. OEOGRAPHIO SOCIETY 
OF WASHINGTON, D. C. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. : 

Gibson Bros., Printers and Bookbinders. 

I90I. 



IVitk Mr. Ha Hock's Compliments. 




Dr. ROBERT BELL. M. D., F. R G. S. 



One of 
Canada's 
explorers 



By CHARLES HALLOCK, M. G. S. 



r)Kl>IC^S.TIi:D TO TIIIO X.VTIOXAL, UKOaKAPillO SOCIETY 
OF A\ ASIIIiVOTON. D. C. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. I 

Gibson Bros., Printers and Bookbinders. 

1901. 



fiois 
.343 



[Reprinted from Forest and 
SlrciJiii by kind permission.'] 

OCT 12 »90ii 



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PREFACE. 



The object of this pamphlet is to set before the Geo- 
graphic Societies of the Old and New Worlds the compre- 
hensive work which has been accomplished during the past 
forty-five years by the indefatigable subject of this sketch, 
whose innate modesty has hitherto kept him from exploiting 
his own remarkable achievements, which cover well-nigh 
one-half of this Northern Contment. Fiat jtistitia. 

C. H. 



Washingion, 

February, igoi. 



One of Canada^s Explorers^ 



By Charles IIai.lock. M. B. S. 

Editor Forest and StrcoDi : 

For thirty years I have known Dr. Robt Bell, F. R. S., of 
the Geological Survey of Canada. To his personal canvass 
Forest and Stream is largely indebted for its early prestige 
and strength in the New Dominion. This month he is start- 
ing out on his forty-third year of continuous field work in 
British North America, his tlestination being the Great Slave 
Lake in the Mackenzie River Basin, N. W. T., hit. 63 de- 
grees, of which he is to make a topographical and geological 
survey. The lake is 300 miles long and 3,000 miles oft, 
though now accessible a large part of the way from Ottawa 
by rail and steamboat. 

Although fifty-seven years of age, and exposed all these 
years to the rigors of high latitudes, he writes me that he is in 
perfect health and vigor, and able to get about as well as ever. 
This fact he attributes to a knowledge of how to take care of 
himself. ''No matter how tired I am," he says, ''I see that 
I always have a comfortable and dry bed of brush or some 
substitute every night. I always dry my clothes, or change 
to dry ones, if I can have a change, and do not go without 
more meals than I can help." He has always followed the 
simplest methods in his out-of-door life, carrying no impedi- 
menta in the shape of camp furniture ; his liabit being to "go 
light" and live oft" the country. Where ftsh organic was not 
to be had, he has subsisted on the plain common food of the 



S ONE OF Canada's explorers. 

voyageur, and taken no alcoholic drinks. He is up to all 
sorts of expedients in emergencies, and does not believe in 
"accidents" and misadventures; and has never had any, be- 
cause he knows how to avoid them. Old campaigners of this 
ilk never think of exploiting their sufferings and hairbreadth 
escapes as evidences of heroism worthy of plaudit. On the 
contrary, they would be mortified to admit them. * * * 
Quite likely these recitals might impress the home members 
of travel clubs, but to my own mind, to glory in what one has 
surtered through inexperience or awkwardness would seem to 
be about as sensible as to boast how many rod tips a man had 
broken in a season on a salmon stream, as evidence of prowess 
in handling big fish. * * * 

Already the publisiied reports of Dr. Bell alone comprise 
more than 190 titles on a great variety of scientific subjects, yet 
so quietly and unostentatiously have his duties been performed 
that the public is not cognizant of them, nor perhaps ever heard 
of him, while plaudits attend tlie liigh roller who has com- 
passed the earth in eighty days, or perchance outlined a rapid 
transit trip to Mars or the moon. Meanwhile, immense geo- 
graphical areas have been mapped and charted and districted 
and divided into Territories and Provinces and settled, which 
had been almost terra incognita until this indomitable sur- 
veyor first set foot on them. And up to present date no abstract 
of these researches has ever been published. Modesty or pre- 
occupation has intervened, though he has been often im- 
portuned. But at last I have procured from him the sub- 
joined enumeration, which reads like Revelation, and for 
which I am sure you will congratulate me and your numerous 
readers. 

Beginning in 1S57, as a youth of fifteen, under the late Sir 
W. E. Logan, Director of the Geological Survey, he served for 
the first three years as assistant to the principal members of the 
staff, and has continued as the head of parties in the same work 
ever since. Commencinsf on the east side of the continent, his 



ONE OF CANADA S EXPI.0RP:RS. 9 

surveys comprise the Gaspc Peninsula from Perce to Rimouski, 
and from the St. Lawrence to the Baie des Chaleurs, and 
thence to (Quebec, the eastern townships, the vSaguenay and 
Lake St. John region, the north shore of the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence, the west coast and the interior of Newfoundland and 
parts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. He has coasted 
all around the Labrador peninsula, from the Saguenay, via 
Bellisle, its eastern or Atlantic coast, its northern coast, which 
forms the south side of Hudson Strait, and its western coast, 
which is the east side of Hudson and James' bays, besides some 
of the islands lying far oti'this coast. Dr. Bell has computed 
the area of the Labrador peninsula to be 560,000 square En- 
glish statute miles, or considerably more than the combined 
areas of Great Britain and Ireland, France, Germany, Belgium 
and Holland. 

In 1S97 our friend made a survey of most of the southern 
coast of the great Island of Bafhnland, opposite to Greenland, 
and which is only exceeded in size by this ice-covered island, 
and by Australia — being 1,000 miles in length. Besides sur- 
veying its southern coast, he made an exploration of the in- 
terior, as far as the large lakes, only one of which had ever 
before been seen by a white man. 

He has visited some of the large islands at the north end of 
Hudson Bay, that great inland sea of our continent, which he 
described more than twentv \'ears ago as the Mediterranean of 
North America. He has in difierent years exploretl and. in 
fact, surveyed the whole east coast of Hudson Bay, except a 
few miles in the north part, from the Strait south to the head 
of James' Bay, also parts of the west coast of this inland sea 
from Marble Island to Moose Factory, at its southern extrem- 
ity. Instrumental, or, in some cases, good track-surveys have 
been made by him of the rivers flowing into James Bay from 
the southeast, south, southwest and west. The largest of these 
is the Noddaway — a bigger stream than the Ottawa, and which 
drains an area exceeding that of England. The great west 



lO ONE OF CANADA S EXPLORERS. 

branch of the Noddaway had no recognized name, and by 
common consent it has been called Bell River, in honor of the 
man who first called attention to its existence and made an in- 
strumental survey of its entire course. In connection with this 
work, he also surveyed a chain of lakes from the Waswanipi 
to the Rupert River, and mapped out the whole of this great 
region heretofore a blank. 

The other principal rivers mentioned as flowing into James' 
Bay are the Moose and its larger branches (Mattagami, ISIissi- 
naibi, etc.), the Albany to its source and its branches (Kena- 
gami, Kabinakagami, Ogoke, etc.), the Attawapiskat — the next 
river north of the Albany, 400 miles long and as large as the 
Rhine. 

Further north he has done the Hayes, Steel and Hill rivers, 
Oxford Lake, Knee Lake, etc , as well as the whole of the Nel- 
son — one of the great rivers of the world — which drains the 
continent west to the Rocky Mountains, besides some of its 
tributary streams, also the Great and Little Churchill rivers. 

Coming back to more southern latitudes, his geological 
work comprises the Ottawa River from its mouth to its ex- 
treme source, including surveys of the Gatineau, the Upper 
Ottawa and some of the streams east of Lake Temiscaming, 
the Montreal River and the country to the north and south of 
it, the country north of Lake Huron to the watershed. Lake 
Nipissing and Mattawa River, the French. Spanish, Missisagi 
and White rivers to their sources: Blind. Thessalon and Gar- 
den rivers, also Lake Temagami, Lady Evelyn and surround- 
ing lakes ; Temagami and Sturgeon rivers ; and all the geo- 
graphical as well as geological features in the Sudbury mining 
district. He had visited every square mile of the several 
islands of the Manitoulin chain before any township surveys 
had been made or a single settler had gone there. His purely 
geological labors comprise the western or lake peninsula of 
Ontario, while on the north side of Lake Superior, besides 
the geological work, he surveyed nearly all the rivers, Nipigon 



ONE OF Canada's explorers. ti 

Lake, the uppennost of the Great Lakes of the St. Lawrence; 
Nipi<2;-on River, Lono- Lake and Pic River, and the country 
northward of these to the Albany, and most of the thirteen 
rivers flowing into Lake Nipigon, together with their h^kes. 
Westward of Lake Superior he has explored all the wooded 
country to the prairies and made the first passablv gootl map 
of the Lake of tlie Woods (published in iSSi). In the north- 
ern parts these extended operations included Minnietaki Lake, 
Lonely Lake (loo miles long), and Lake St. Joseph or Osna- 
burgh Lake, nearly as large, the English River and its chain 
of lakes. Shoal Lake and Red Lake, and its river. The in- 
ternational boundary line was examined geologically from 
Lake Superior westward to Lake of the Woods, including 
Rainy Lake and River. 

A track survey was made of most of the shores of Lake 
Winnipeg ; Lake Manitoba and the boat route from it to Lake 
Winnipeg were explored, as well as the ''mountains" along 
the west side of the Winnipeg Basin, and a track-survev, 
showing the details of the course of Red River from Winni- 
peg Cit) to the lake of the same name. Further west the 
Assinniboine, Swan and Qii'Appelle rivers were explored, as 
well as considerable portions of the North and South Sas- 
katchewan, also the prairie region between these streams, and 
thence southward to Montana. Two routes w'ere explored 
from the North Saskatchewan to Clearwater River, and a 
good track-survey made of Lac la Biche and its river to the 
Athabasca, as well as of this stream itself all the way to Atha- 
basca Lake, and of tlie waters around its western extremity, 
Lac la Loche, Clear Lake and Isle a la Crosse Lake, Beaver 
River, Green Lake and the route thence to Prince Albert. 

The above enumeration Dr. Bell has put down hastilv from 
memory, but it does not by any means mention all the geologi- 
cal anil t()p()gra[)hical work which has been personally accom- 
plished by him. He is also fairly entitled to credit for atldi- 
tional work pei formed under his immediate superintendence 



12 ONE OF CANADA S EXPLORERS. 

by field assistants whom he has trained and specially equipped 
for each particular survey. Some of these which we recall 
are the Megiskun and VVaswanipi rivers and connected lakes, 
a route south from Lake Mistassini toward Lake St. John. 
God's Lake, Island Lake, various rivers on the east side of 
Lake Winnipeg, Pine River from Cross Lake on Nelson River 
westward to Moose Lake and the Saskatchewan, and this river 
itself, two routes from this stream northward to Reindeer Lake, 
this large lake itself; Wollaston Like and route thence to 
Athabasca Lake, this lake and the chain of lakes forming the 
upper Churchill River, Black Sturgeon Lake and River, Cat 
Lake and River, with the connected lakes, the Abitibi River 
and numerous other important features in various regions. 

Dr. Bell was on all the steamship expeditions sent out bv the 
Canadian Government to Hudson Strait and Bay. In addition 
to his duties as geologist and naturalist, he was medical offi- 
cer on the Neptidic and Alert expeditions, but on the Diana 
expedition of 1S97 he was obliged to leave the ship in order to 
make his surveys by means of a yacht and boat, so that it be- 
came necessary to take out another medical man. 

At the close of his field operations in iSSo, he sailed by the 
Hudson's Bav Company's barque Ocean Nymph^ from York 
Factory, on the west side of the bay, to London, and had a 
long and very stormy voyage. He has passed through Hud- 
son Strait nine difierent times, and having studied the naviga- 
bility of these waters is considered an authority on this subject. 

On account of the length of time he has devoted to the work, 
together with the fact that the expenses were defrayed by the 
Government, and with a great capacity for physical endurance. 
Dr. Bell has been enabled to accomplish a greater amount of 
geographical and geological work than any other man in 
America, or probably in any other country. As most of this 
work was in heretofore unknown regions without many dis- 
tinctive names, he has been obliged to give a vast number of 
such names as a necessity for the sake of identification and do- 



ONE OF Canada's explokeks. 13 

scriplioii. Mr. George Johnson, the oilicial Dominion statis- 
tician, who has paid great attention to this matter, calls him 
the principal place-name father of Canada. 

More of the above work was done by canoes with Indian 
and half-breed voyageurs than by any other method, but the 
coasts of Hudson Bay, Lakes Superior, Winnipeg and Mani- 
toba were explored by means of boats. His work on the 
prairies and plains was all done before treaties had been made 
with the Indians, before there were any mounted police, and 
before the international boundary line was run — when horse- 
stealing was considered a virtue and buffalo were abundant. 
Under these circumstances he had many very exciting experi- 
ences and adventures. 

Before closing this brief outline of Dr. Bell's career I might 
add that any part of his time which was not required for actual 
official work he utilized to study and graduate as a bachelor 
of science, a doctor of medicine and master in surgery, to 
study practical chemisty under Lord Playfair and others in 
the old country, to travel in Europe in diflerent years, and to be- 
come a professor for Hve sessions in Qiieen's University, which 
conferred upon him the degree of LL. D. He is a fellow of 
many learned societies, among them the Royal Societ}' of 
London, which is the highest distinction for scientists in the 
British Empire. 

While making his extiaordinary record of geological and 
topographical survey and exploration. Dr. Bell has had more 
adventures and thrilling experiences and more hardships from 
fatigue, wet and other discomforts, lack of provisions, etc., and 
has seen more of the game and fish, the real wild Indians and 
Eskimos and the Hudson's Bay Company's people of all ranks 
than any other white man, or any Indian that ever lived. He 
has improved his unequalled opportunities to map out the geo- 
graphical distribution of the forest trees of Canada, has col- 
lected the fork-lore of the various Indian tribes and of the Es- 
quimos, has taken great numbers of photographs in the far- 



14 ONE OF CANADA S EXPLORERS. 

away regions, and has made extensive zoological and l>otanical 
collections and observations on a variety of subjects. He has 
a rare genius for telling his experiences, and although he has 
never written them out from his field notes, the original records 
in his possession would fill many most entertaining and useful 
volumes. As the author of this running biographical sketch 
I am proud of the distinction of first making public this record 
of marvelous achievements. 



[The mere enumeration of his surveys and explorations, 
covering forty-five years of time and extending over half a 
continent, cannot convey to the mind any adequate con- 
ception of the vast amount of geographical work which has 
been accomplished, especially as it was done in wild and little 
known regions. Think of the enormous labor, to say nothing 
of the privations, hardships, and dangers involved in accom- 
plishing any one of the many important undertakings which 
have been incidently mentioned, as for example those of Lake 
Nipigon, which is seventy miles across with numerous long 
bays and large islands ; Lake of the Woods almost equally 
large ; the Albany River, 600 miles long, with large branches 
some of which were also surveyed ; the Attawapiskat, 400 
miles long; the basin of Moose River measuring about 300 
miles in every direction and with an area greater than that of 
England ; the Noddaway River and its branch, the Bell River, 
both instrumentally surveyed, as well as other rivers and some 
large lakes tributary to these and draining an area also as 
large as England; the Churchill River, as large as the 
Rhine; the Nelson, one of the five great rivers of North 
America ; Hayes River and its branches ; Winnipeg River and 
some of its principal tributaries, including the English River 
and Long Lake (100 miles) ; Great Slave Lake as long as 
Lake Superior ; much of the shore line of Hudson Bay, which 
is nearly half the size of the Mediterranean ; part of Baffin- 



ONE OF CANADA S EXPLORERS. 15 

land. We might say much more, l)ut these references are 
perhaps sufficient. They show a rare talent and ability for 
carrying out geographical work on a large scale, which has 
been of the greatest value to Canada and a most impoitant 
addition to the science of geography in general. 

The regions in which Dr. Bell's surveys have been carried 
on lie for the most part far away from the headquarters of the 
Survey at Ottawa, so that in order to reach them before 
beginning each season's work and to return again in the fall 
generally required long journeys through uninhabited country. 
Let the reader take a map of British North America and trace 
the various surveys and explorations which have been men- 
tioned and he will soon be convinced that the amount of work 
which has been accomplished by one man is almost phe- 
nomenal. 

Besides his more distant explorations Dr. Bell has done 
a large share of the regional or detailed geological work of the 
Survey in such regions for instance as between tlie Great 
Lakes of the St. Lawrence, the Manitouliii Islands, the 
country north from the shores of Lakes Huron and Superior, 
the Gaspe Peninsula, etc., etc. — C. H.] 



